That's funny you say you've never heard of posterart 101. I thought such a thing would never exist either, but I found out at my alma mater, that's how screenprinting was brought into the printmaking department, with a class called "Posters 101" in the late 70's or early 80's by a new faculty member. It's since just been turned into basic screenprinting, but it started as a posters-only class. And the head screenprinter last year hated that all my work was posters!
Three years ago they also started a zine class (but they got it half right and half wrong and it flopped basically).

I just gave my thoughts on why I like this poster and why I thought it was good. I was hoping that maybe others would share that view without all of the usual bickering.
I'll try again (different approach)
I like this poster. I think it is really good for tons of reasons. I think most importantly, It makes me want to make great posters. I am completly inspired by it. I don't care who made it. I think it's fantastic and am going to make a serious effort to get my hands on one. I actualy went to the show and had fun with one of my best friends. It makes me happy to look at it. I hope it makes some of you all happy as well. That was my initial idea in commenting on it. I'm going to keep picking posters that I like and saying lots of nice things about them.

All college can do is help. Some great schools really help. I never heard of poster art 101. You dont need a degree to do poster art. Almost every one of my heros never earned a degree. The proof is in the pudding.

"Duude!" I really dig this Coop one...when I had gotten kind of tired of his work for a while I saw this and it made my day. Ilove that sci-fi themed one he did (can't remember which one) where there's a character saying "Spa Fon!" I just wish I could remember the semi-obscure origin of that phrase...anyone? I loved it at the time coz it was so random I had never seen it referenced now I cna't remmeber the source...anyone know what I'm talking about? It's from an old comic or something? an EC maybe?

have there really been instances where someone gets on here and rips a piece to shreds? i haven't seen it. they might have OPINIONS about details. but...i haven't seen anyone really being that rude.
tornado: it's good to hear that you like art's work and jeff's work. i get the feeling that most of the illustrators here just don't accept the design work as being valid. seems that you do. on the other hand, though, i think the designers certainly accept the illustrated work.
the best work comes out of exactly what your talking about. that visceral reaction that happens when you create a piece. HOW it is executed shouldn't be the issue.

No Captain...it started when certain people came with that cold, art 'industry' attitude...the one that eats a piece of art and chews it up and spits it out into a thousand little pieces and calls it 'a critique'. It seems like most of this behaviour is excused by people saying, well everyones got an opinion and if you cant take it dont post your work here.' I respectfully assert that THIS attitude is FLAWED. Were talking about someones ART. Lets get real: of course some kid who submits a piece to this site...to the WORLD, actually..is going to hurt when his 'baby' is picked apart and technically broken down and made to look 'flawed'. NO artwork is 'flawed'. And its sad, because you are right: some of these guys were 'manufactured' this way...right out of some art school. They are taught to be these cold critics of design and form. Dont even try to say Im discounting 'design' in this forum. I NEVER said that. I LOVE Chantry, Kleinsmith, and prolly own more posters by BOTH than most of you. What Im saying is that kind of art-world coldness is NOT welcome here. NOTICE peoples reactions to it. Its NOT coincidental.
To these cold critics, it isnt art. Its process and form. It isnt from the heart...the way you can turn on music and just pick up a pencil and start going, and not know where your pencil is taking you. The end result may look indecipherable...but its FEELING. No, to some of these guys, I dont think that would make sense.
And Im not speaking for all of them. Its just my 'opinion'

why don't you tell it like it is, tornado.
as if this wasn't prickish:
>>Im trying to break down just WHY I like this one...y'know...just wanting to apply the new GIGPOSTERS ANALYZATION PROCESS ™
-I like the green. Its very...green.
-The bones in the boy are right where the should be! Very 'bonedularly' correct.
-He spelled GREEN DAY correctly. Amazing.
Yep, this ones a winner. It LOOKS cool, too.<<
i get you're point, but you're being a prick about it.

Exaclty, i didnt major in rock star posters, i majored in graphic design, were you have to be critical of the work. your art director is going to be critical your client is going to be critical and the consummer is going to be critical. and i think in someways, to SOME people these ideas can be applied to concert poster art as well. the more designerly of the bunch are going at the project in a different fashion than those who use more illustrative elements. I dont think either way is wrong, and if you say that the way a person goes about it is the wrong way then there is something flawed in the whole system. I agree with you it does suck when people start bickering over posters, the saddest part is, its not even really over posters its about preconcieved notions of what is right and wrong, we can have the same arguments about politics, religion etc.... but by those examples we will fight to the end of time. Im not gonna change the way i think, and you arent gonna change the way you think, we all need to hit some kinda of common ground and realize we are just offering up opinions from different view points. you say it all started when "some" people came on the boards with their alternate views, it think we just need to respect each others opinions and not take it to heart.

Nope, sorry lure. I like you, but this needs to be said. You say Im being a prick. But, I bet theres a bunch of people who agree that this needs to be said, and has been needing to be said for a couple of weeks.
Whenever someone starts to say these things, they are patted on the head and made to feel like theyre 'overreacting'.
I was HERE. I saw how the site used to be. Would anybody..ANYONE with the courage to tell it like it is PLEASE say something!
Im not being a prick. Im using that little 'opinion' of mine...that little thing that SO many on this site justify their condecending comments about peoples artwork with.
It needs to stop.
Its not clever and it isnt making any of these guys doing it more popular. Its not cute or cool to be the one or two people that everyone gets irritated with.
Wake up.

Well, Captain, if thats true, then DESIGN SCHOOL teaching is flawed. Because in a field like rock concert posters, NOTHING is wrong. Thats like saying a certain type of music in rock is 'wrong'. Like if I said THE BOREDOMS make music the 'wrong' way. Every rock-n-roll historian would be down my throat cuz thats really anti-rock. PUNK was considered the 'wrong way' by lots of people once.
So theres no room for that in the poster end of it. If I want to do stick figures for my posters, its right TO me. I agree with you on this: too many people are confusing 'design'(as a field or genre) with concert posters. Maybe in the secular design world thats how it is. But in rock-n-roll art, THAT attitude dont fly. And the reaction of MANY on these boards to the 'new elements' on this site should say something to that.
Isnt it telling that SO many people are reacting to that (us against them as you call it) on this site? It wasnt like that before, and there WAS crit given.

And the kicker is: I went to "Design School" See? It doesn't have to be this Bizarro One Dimensional World. I can analyze when I hafta, I can like a piece 'cause it gives me boner. Whatever. I dig Chantry, Coop, Jay Ryan, Charles S. Anderson (and the list goes on). Comic books/art books/Leonardo/Warhol. I don't limit myself. I call 'em like I see 'em.

Gooch, my pal, you hit it right on the head.
You see, it dont matter. And you like this one cuz its funny. And, it looks cool. And thats all it takes.
And we dont have to say 'It wouldve looked better had COOP used blue instead of green', or 'It wouldve been more CORRECT if COOP had did this or that.'
Thats COOPs art, not yours! (audibleise my yell in your head)
COOP made it the way HE wanted it to look. Leave it alone. Better yet, go out, do as much work as COOP has, do as much 'real world' work as hes done, then post all of YOUR work up here (Im using COOP as my subject, but it applies to any well known artist).
It constantly makes me smile when I think that the 'known' artists (and lets be real. 'known' means 'successful'...and 'successful' means that their artwork, no matter how untrained it is to YOU, speaks to a WHOLE lotta folks)..anyhow, its telling how these 'known' artists very rarely, if ever, post negative crits of anyones work. They seem to fall back on that old motherly idiom, 'If you aint got nuttin nice to say, then shaddup!'
Ive never seen EMEK, or Hampton, or Jeff Wood, or Jermaine, or Kleinsmith, or Cardoso- any of em, post negative crits.
Thats TELLING, isnt it?

why have so many people on here adopted an us against them mentality? i think one thing about the more design oriented poster artists is that in design you are taught to be critical, but constructivly so, so I think some people are mistaking the critisism for a knock on the artist when in the end its more likely just the person reacting as he/she was taught to react, in a critical manner, its the nature of the art, its not saying "your right and im wrong" its not saying "im trying to teach you something" its just critisism that may be right or wrong, and it can be taken in to consideration or tossed aside but i think some arent looking atit in the same context as others. thats how you are taught so you follow by example.

No, Max...I got your point EXACTLY. Really...(and between you and me, I agree:)
Ahem...but MY post was in the mood of literary sarcasm, pointedly aimed at our new pals that have settled on this site as their 'soil to till'. They've come to 'teach us', because we've been liking the WRONG art for TOO long.
YAWN...

Not my fave Coop but friggin' funny. And even though Coop is "unlettered" (is he? I have no idea) I've garned from interviews the man studies art/culture like a lunatic. And does it matter? As long as you still get your hands dirty.

COOP! yes...Design school lernin'=NONE.
On the job trainin'= mucho!
Its a shame how an 'unlettered' man like the COOPSTER can get all the attention he does..and with NO degree in ANYTHING!
Im trying to break down just WHY I like this one...y'know...just wanting to apply the new GIGPOSTERS ANALYZATION PROCESS ™
-I like the green. Its very...green.
-The bones in the boy are right where the should be! Very 'bonedularly' correct.
-He spelled GREEN DAY correctly. Amazing.
Yep, this ones a winner. It LOOKS cool, too.

One of my very favorite posters ever. Maybe a little something for everybody? Nice Illustration, good color theory, hand drawn text, good layout ... I know some of you guys really don't like Coop, but this is a very solid piece of poster art. A classic in my book